Education Archives

Bear Creek Middle School has a new principal, but she’s not new to the area.
Lauren Carter easily talks about coming home.
She taught at Statham Elementary School for three years and has lived in the school district for five years – about five minutes from the school, she said.
“I really was ready to come home,” she said.
She said her husband is from Statham and they have two children, a 9-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.
“Statham is a really special community,” she said.
Carter officially was hired at the Barrow County school board meeting Aug. 28.
She was still splitting her time between Bear Creek and Winder Elementary, where she has been an assistant principal since the school opened last year.
She replaces Jennifer Wood, who moved to the central office as the director of secondary education.
Carter also was assistant principal at County Line Elementary and was an instructional coach at Yargo Elementary for three years. She started her career teaching in Gwinnett County.
She is a graduate of Winder-Barrow High School and a native of Barrow County.
Carter received her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from North Georgia College and State University, before it merged and became the University of North Georgia. She earned a master’s degree in elementary math and a doctorate in teacher leadership, both from Walden University. She also was in the Barrow County Rising Stars program and the leadership program of the Northeast Georgia RESA.
Bear Creek has about 700 students, near the enrollment at Winder Elementary. Carter noted the school is “at the top” in test scores among county schools and one challenge is maintaining that. Carter said she was “incredibly excited” about the new job.
She said Winder Elementary and Russell Middle had collaborated on projects. She said she already had emailed Shawn Williams, principal at Statham Elementary about exchanging ideas.

The Barrow County Board of Education likely will hire two companies Tuesday to produce plans for the renovation at three schools.
Joe Perno, assistant superintendent for system operations, recommended Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart and Stewart for renovation plans at Yargo Elementary School and Westside Middle School and Hussey Gay Bell for work at Apalachee High School.
The board will vote on the recommendations at its Tuesday meeting.
Perno told the board construction will not start soon, but the projects are “in line” after construction on a new high school starts.
Design plans for the renovations will be paid from money generated by SPLOST V.
The fee for the firms will be 5 percent of the total construction cost.
Perno explained that the recommended firms were number 2 and 3 on the 11 architectural companies that made presentations on the new high school.
The board also will get an updated five-year local facilities plan in March.
Perno said a state group will be in the county in March to inspect the plan. He said it is revised each year.
See more in the Feb. 28 edition of the Barrow News-Journal.

The Barrow County Board of Education is expected to approve the purchase of new software for data management at its meeting next week.
Ken Greene, assistant superintendent for support services, told the board Tuesday the new software would handle information for attendance, discipline, grading, benchmark, enrollment, financial and human resources.
He said the system that is being used has been fine, but it has “outgrown its usefulness.”
The new SAP software will “pull everything we’re doing together,” he said.
The cost is expected to be $63,000 the first year and a bit more than $19,000 annually. He said the school district will save about $7,640 a year on maintenance costs.
The school system is using three kinds of software now that will be done by one system.
Joe Perno, assistant superintendent for system operations, said the donation of more than 90 acres of land that will be used to expand the district’s agriculture programs has been completed.
The land is along Ga. 53, near the Oconee-Barrow county line. Perno said teacher Ashley Best helped arrange the donation.
The Southeastern Trust for Parks and Land donated the property.
He also said a group, including Holsenbeck Elementary student Joshua Wright, met to talk about remodeling the school cafeteria. Wright won the Uncle Ben’s Cooking Contest and a $30,000 prize for remodeling the cafeteria.
Perno said the group is trying to get the project done before Wright leaves the school this spring. He is a fifth-grader.
For more on Tuesday's meeting, see the Jan. 10 edition of the Barrow News-Journal.

Barrow County’s annual Fine Arts Festival is going to look different, a lot different, this year.
The festival, which officially starts March 1 but will kick off Feb. 27-28 with two band concerts, will be much larger and last much longer.
The festival will stretch over six weeks, March 1 to April 15, will be held at a number of locations and will include the efforts of a few thousand Barrow County students. A major change will be the display of visual arts, Lee Bane, STEAM coordinator for Barrow County, said.
The displays will be larger than in the past. Bane explained that each school will have a classroom in the new Center for Innovative Teaching, the former Russell Middle School.
Schools have had displays on “two sheets of butcher paper,” Bane said, “to display basically their full year (of work).”
The CFIT will be set up more like an art gallery, Bane said, and each school will display its work in a classroom. Each art teacher will design the gallery for each school.
The art will be exhibited March 20-31. Displays have been for only five days in previous years.
For the first time, the displays will be open on a weekend.
Hours are expected to be 5 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The festival also will include nearly 20 performances of musical and drama groups. It will begin Monday and Tuesday with concerts at the two county high schools.
Performances will be held between March 1 and April 15.
The final two will be musicals put on by the drama departments at each high school.
Appalachee will present “Hairspray” March 31-April 2 and Winder-Barrow will perform “Bye Bye Birdie” April 14-15.
The elementary honor chorus, made up of 10 fourth- and fifth-grade students from each elementary school, will perform March 24 at the Colleen O. Williams Theater in downtown Winder.
The Bethlehem Elementary School Hip Hop Club will perform March 22.
The same day, Sims Academy will present its first “short films” festival at the Williams theater. That will start at 6:30 p.m. and last for “about an hour of student-produced short films,” Bane said.
He said the art teachers also will produce their own work for display, also a new feature of the festival.

Applications for the Barrow County School System’s 2017-2018 Georgia Pre-K Program Lottery will be accepted March 1-31 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at the BCSS Professional Development Center (PDC), located at 179 West Athens St. in Winder.
Children must be 4 years of age on or before Sept. 1, 2017, in order to apply for the Pre-K program. Children who are 5 years of age on or before Sept. 1, 2017 and have not attended Georgia’s Pre-K Program as a 4-year-old may enroll in the BCSS Pre-K program.
Families should come to the PDC to pick up and complete a lottery application.
This information will also be available online at www.barrow.k12.ga.us/pre-k.html starting March 1, 2017.
Parents will be required to show current proof of residency to verify their elementary school attendance zone. Proof of residency is a utility bill (electric, gas, water, cable/satellite, garbage or house phone), settlement statement, or a rental/lease agreement. Parents will also need to bring a copy of their child’s birth certificate or other acceptable proof of age and identity to verify the child’s birthday/age.
A lottery number will be issued to each applicant.
The Pre-K Lottery application information must be turned in to the BCSS Professional Development Center Pre-K Program by the end of the day on March 31, 2017.
No faxes will be accepted. Any applications received after March 31, 2017 will be placed on the waiting list and will not be eligible to participate in the lottery.
Completion of an application does not guarantee that a child will be enrolled, but instead places the child on the list for the BCSS Pre-K Lottery for 2017-2018.
On April 7, 2017, nine separate lottery drawings will be held to determine the class lists and waiting lists for each elementary school.
These drawings are open to the public and will be held at the BCSS Professional Development Center.
Families who are interested in attending these drawings may attend according to the following schedule:
•Auburn Elementary, 9 a.m.
•Kennedy Elementary, 11:30 a.m.
•Bethlehem Elementary, 9:30 a.m.
•Statham Elementary, noon
•Bramlett Elementary, 10 a.m.
•Yargo Elementary, 12:30 p.m.
•County Line Elementary, 10:30 a.m.
•Winder Elementary, 1 p.m.
•Holsenbeck Elementary, 11 a.m.
The Barrow County School System will have 17 Pre-K classrooms located at the nine elementary schools.
All Pre-K students must attend a Pre-K class within their elementary school attendance zone.
The first 22 students drawn in the lottery from each elementary school attendance zone will be in Pre-K Class A, and the next 22 students drawn will be in Pre-K Class B for that school attendance zone.
The rest of the students drawn in the lottery will be used to establish the order of the waiting list for that school attendance zone.
Enrollment is limited to twenty-two students per class.
Any openings that become available in the 17 elementary Pre-K classes will be filled using the waiting list.
The Pre-K Director will keep documentation of the progression of the waiting lists.
All Pre-K classes/slots are pending state budget/funding and approval of the BCSS Pre-K Grant Agreement by Bright from the Start, Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning.

Most Barrow County schools earned an above average climate rating in 2016.
The Barrow County Board of Education got a look at its 2016 School Climate Star Ratings on Tuesday. The Georgia Department of Education released the ratings last week and every school in the Barrow County School System earned an “average” or higher rating.
Most schools scored “above average” and “excellent” except for Auburn Elementary and Kennedy Elementary, which both scored “average.”
The climate star rating “refers to the quality and character of school life” according to the GADOE.
Its rating is measured considering surveys of students, teachers and parents; student discipline; whether it’s a safe and substance-free learning environment; and attendance.
Schools are ranked between 1-5 stars, with 5 being excellent; 4 being above average; 3 being average; 2 being below satisfactory; and 1 being unsatisfactory.
The district outperformed the state in the percentage of schools scoring in the top categories.
Of the district’s 14 schools, 86 percent scored a 4 or 5, compared to the state average of 55 percent.
Forty-three percent of the district’s schools scored the highest rate, 5, while the state average was 15 percent.
Also at its meeting, the board learned the district received a 4 on its financial efficiency rating. The Financial Efficiency Star Rating considers a school district’s financial efficiency and student performance (based on the CCRPI).
“Specifically, the rating is based on a three-year average of per-pupil spending, which is then associated with the district’s CCRPI score,” according to the GADOE. “Each district receives a rating ranging from one-half star to five stars; a five-star district can be described as having strong academic outcomes and lower levels of expenditures in comparison with other districts.”
The district is one of 19 school systems in the state to receive a 4 or above in both financial efficiency and in climate.
CONSENT AGENDA
Items added to the consent agenda to be voted on at the Feb. 7 meeting are:
•a bid from TechOptics totaling $93,100 for Epson interactive projectors and a Hitachi projector system for Winder Elementary School.
•several policy updates including: changes to the overtime pay policy for classified personnel (to include considerations of maintenance department workers who are often on-call all week); and the replacement of a policy for local school councils (to include more specific regulations for school governance teams).
•a revision to a bid approved last month for Commvault licensing for $46,900.
The low bidder, PCM-G of Chantilly, Va., decided it cannot honor its bid. The bid may be awarded to the second lowest bidder, Insight of Tempe, Ariz., which said it would match PCM-G’s price.

OTHER BUSINESSAlso at its meeting, the board:
•got a report on purchases between $10,000 and $24,999 during the month of January. Most purchases included school bus repairs, except for a Title I purchase of 60 Chromebooks for Kennedy Elementary.
•learned Winder-Barrow High School plans to construct a pavilion near the tennis courts, creek and practice field.
The materials will be donated by Lowe’s grant and the Sims Academy Construction Department will help construct the facility with oversight by the maintenance department.
•heard plans to begin a Newcomer Academy at Sims Academy next year. The program, which will be for English-learner students with low proficiency, would include students from both high schools. Participants will still take some classes at AHS and WBHS. District staff thinks the program would help students who are new to the United States and new to the English language.
•heard of a new guitar techniques class for eighth grade students at Haymon-Morris Middle School.
The class is intended for students who are interested in learning a musical instrument but are not currently enrolled in band or chorus.

The Barrow County School District in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Winder-Barrow County will be applying for Georgia Department of Education Fiscal Year 2018- 21st Century Community Learning Center grant funds.
The application will be submitted Jan. 25, and questions concerning this application should be submitted to: Derek Hutchens – Derek@winderbarrowbgc.com

The Barrow County Board of Education Tuesday agreed to collaborate with ArtsNow, a nonprofit focused on arts programs and education, to create a “Center for Innovation” at the former Russell Middle School building.
The board met briefly Tuesday in its regular session. It heard a report about the proposed center and discussed it at length last week in its work session.
The center will focus initially on the development of arts integration and STEAM curriculum.
It will start with middle school students.
The memorandum of understanding approved Tuesday projects a long-term partnership for the two organizations that could extend into summer school and after-school programming.
Board members mentioned last week the possibility of working with existing YMCA programs and expanding them to the school facility.
Supt. Chris McMichael told the board last week he does not expect the first year of operation to cost the school district much money. He explained the contribution of the school system is mostly the school building. He noted utility and security costs already exist for that building.
He said he expects the center to open this summer and to host summer workshops this year and classes in the next school year.
The MOU calls for to develop, pilot, and disseminate innovative educational content for (and with) Barrow County students.
It includes a provision for a satellite office in the school facility for ArtsNow and for an “executive director-level” person to work at the center and oversee curriculum development and teaching resources for the two entities.
The MOU is for a five-year period with an automatic renewal for another five years. Either side can withdraw from the agreement with six months notice.
At the work session, McMichael also said he hopes to have staff members from Savannah College of Art and Design work with the project.
The MOU does not include SCAD and it was not mentioned at Tuesday’s meeting.
In other business, the board:
• Approved spending $46,861 with PCM-G of Chantilly, Va., to upgrade its licensing for technology. The district has been upgrading on a server-by-server, license-by-license basis. The contract will provide new backups to the system and consolidating all backups under a single platform. The Virginia company was one of four bidders. The other prices ranged from $48,167l to $51,324.
• Re-elected Mark Still and Lynn Stevens as chairman and vice-chair of the board. Still was elected without opposition. Stevens was elected on a 5-3 vote over Garey Huff Sr.
• Heard a report that the district collected $9.7 million in ESPLOST sales tax money in 2016. That is an increase of 1.7 percent over 2015 revenue, 5.7 percent over 2014; and 12.7 percent over 2013.
• Heard a report that the district has reserve funds of $18.5 million and is under budget in spending for the current year.
• Received a report that the district has 231 more students as of Dec. 6 than it had Dec. 9, 2015. The school district has 13,631 students. The eight elementary schools have enrollments between 759 and 957; the four middle schools have between 698 and 833 students. Winder-Barrow High School has 1,955 students and Apalachee has 1,749.
• Recognized Michael Jones for producing three videos that received silver awards of merit in competition for the Georgia School Public Relations Association. The videos were about the district’s teacher-leader program and the teacher of the year, Tiara Mensigner and teachers at the Winder-Barrow High School talking about Barrow Bold, the district’s theme.

Eighth-graders from Haymon-Morris Middle School toured downtown Winder sites including the Barrow County Museum during a Nov. 4 field trip.
The group gathered on the steps of the Barrow County Historic Courthouse for a group photo before dividing up into groups for visits to several places.
Inside the courtroom of the Historic Courthouse, Piedmont Judicial Circuit District Attorney Brad Smith spoke to students about how the court system works and how people interact with the law.
Students discovered more about local history while completing a scavenger hunt through the Barrow County Museum, located in the historic county jail.
They were assisted by museum volunteers and Barrow County Historical Society trustees in locating exhibits to find answers to questions about early inhabitants of the area, a product for which Winder was well known for between 1930 and 1970 and the Barrow Countian whose impact is nationally known.
Superior Court Judge Wayne McLocklin also stopped by the museum during the tours.
At the Winder Fire Department, fire officials shared information about fire safety and discussed employment opportunities in the fire department.
In addition, students enjoyed eating lunch at several local restaurants.
Haymon-Morris Middle School teacher Heather Burch asked students about the experience and was met with several responses.
“I found the Winder Walking Tour very fun. Walking around with my friends who aren’t in my classes was great and I got to know them a bit more,” said Marti Tucker.
Student Georgia Cox said, “I really liked the Winder Walking Tour because I got to learn new things about the city I live in.”
For Chloe Frailley, the day was fun and interesting.
“Our tour guides were very attentive, and I learned more than I thought I would,” Frailley said.
Alex Sales agreed: “I learned a lot about how Winder was created.”
Learning about the history of Winder and Barrow County was a fun learning experience which Haymon-Morris eighth-graders generally undertake each year.
In previous years, some elementary students took a museum field trip.
Gabriel Whyte said the field trip “helped me learn more about history. It gave me a visual point just seeing how it was back then and being there to see what tools they used. It was fun to learn more about firefighters and courts that I didn’t know about.”
For Isaac Xiong, “My favorite part was the scavenger hunt at the Museum. It was entertaining to learn the history around Winder.”
Josh Shierling was also intrigued by the museum’s contents.
“I enjoyed seeing the World War II uniforms and gear in the museum,” he said.

A group of 11 FFA members from Winder-Barrow High School made history in October.
The group was the national winner in the Hall of States, which included exhibits from about 33 states.
Ashley Best, FFA adviser, said only first place was selected for the Hall of States.
It was the first time Winder-Barrow had claimed the top prize in the Hall of States.
The FFA chapter also was named a national three-star chapter, one of 12 selected in Georgia.
Winder-Barrow first won the top spot in Georgia’s exhibits to earn the exhibition spot at the national convention. The chapter won $2,500 at the state convention to help with expenses for the national gathering.
She explained the chapter members worked about a month on the exhibit before the state convention and then “tweaked” it in a couple of ways for the national show.
The FFA chapter established a booth centered around Georgia’s top 10 agriculture commodities, Zoe Demos, FFA reporter, said.
It included information about “live broilers,” Tristan Gable, senior at WBHS, said.
That was appropriate given Georgia’s history of production in that industry. “If we (Georgia) were a country, we’d be in the top five (chicken producers) in the world,” Tristan said.
The FFA members were all first-time attendees at a national convention.
The group included one freshman, two sophomores, five juniors and three seniors, Best said.
The booth also featured pecans, another major crop in Georgia and an agriculture word search, Demos said.
The booth featured student-made wooden keychains and Georgia peanuts as prizes.
The students had “a giant jar full of pecans and they had to guess how many pecans were in the jar,” Best said. The number of pecans in the jar was the subject of some discussion.
About 320 seemed to be the best guess. Tristan offered that number.
Best explained the group put its exhibit together in the spring of 2015. It had to provide a portfolio of all its activities during the 2015-16 school year before the state FFA convention.
The convention was held Oct. 17-22 in Indianapolis and included 64,000 FFA members. The WBHS chapter has about 320 members, Best said.
Bryanna Cash, Emily Whiddon and Madison Williams – all WBHS alumni – were awarded the American FFA degree at the convention. It is the highest individual honor awarded to FFA members.
The three are in college. Cash and Williams attended Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and Whiddon attends North Georgia University. All three are pursuing agricultural degrees, James Hale, FFA adviser, said.